i6i THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



sides we expect evidences of a sordid make-up. Fine Greek noses, how- 

 ever, we take to be sure indications of good taste — large, shapely Roman 

 noses as signs of solid character, inclining to generosity and capable 

 of wise leadership. 



These characterizations, however, seem but dimly borne out by the 

 pages of biography. Thus, as possessed of small noses, we find Stephen 

 A. Douglas, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Thomas Jefferson, James Russell 

 Lowell, Peter the Great, Robespierre, Bayard Taylor and Thackeray 

 (that of Schubert is spoken of as "upturned" and was doubtless 

 small), while the large nose finds representation in the case of Charles 

 XII. of Sweden, Eugene Field, Albert Gallatin, Washington Irving, 

 Rossetti ("large distended nostrils"), Thoreau ("huge"), Tolstoy 

 ("broad"), George Washington ("long in proportion to his face"), 

 William the Silent ("long with wide nostrils"), Beethoven ("rather 

 broad"). The hawk-nose was a characteristic of the warriors Charle- 

 magne, Cromwell, Farragut and Frederick the Great, as also of Colum- 

 bus ("aquiline"), Defoe, Fielding, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Lamb, 

 Lanier, Savonarola, Sidney Smith, Thaddeus Stevens, Bayard Taylor 

 and Chopin. The straight nose is found in the cases of Captain Cook, 

 Albert Gallatin ("long and prominent"), Alexander Hamilton (" long 

 and rather sharp"), Washington Irving, Paul Jones, Julian, Napoleon 

 and Whitman. 



Far more interesting and significant is our material with reference 

 to the foreheads of great men — that popular test of intellect and 

 capacity. Remarkable for high foreheads were Bunyan, Charlemagne, 

 Charles XII. of Sweden, Darwin, Hazlitt, Patrick Henry, Hobbes, 

 Leigh Hunt, Ibsen, Washington Irving, Andrew Jackson (high but 

 narrow), Peter the Great, Robespierre, Walter Scott, Daniel Webster, 

 Beethoven and Schubert. As " broad " we find the foreheads of Car- 

 negie, Agassiz, Charles XII. of Sweden, Captain Cook, Stephen A. 

 Douglas ("massive"), Nathaniel Hawthorne ("massive"), Washing- 

 ton Irving, Paul Jones, Keats (but not high). Lamb, Monroe, Robes- 

 pierre, Rossetti, Savonarola, Walter Scott, Stevenson, Beethoven. The 

 forehead of TJ. S. Grant is described as " square " — usually accepted as 

 a proof of fearlessness — while those of Coleridge, Whitman and Michael 

 Angelo are described as " overhanging." The foreheads of Frederick 

 the Great and Robespierre were receding, while those of Keats and John 

 Marshall were low. 



It is not without interest that among the physiognomies of the dis- 

 tinguished individuals whose biographies we have examined, we note as 

 conspicuously absent the "prognathous jaw" and "long, projecting 

 and voluminous ears," which according to Ellis are characteristics of 

 the criminal class, and which, it may be observed, are likewise tokens 

 of recurrence to the primitive human type; nor in our studies of the 



